


musings on family and humanity

by voidfoxstarlight



Series: Cousins [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Weddings, cecil palmer doesnt actually show up in this one, im gonna pretend the timelines line up right for this to happen, set in some nebulous future where everythings pretty much okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23151136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidfoxstarlight/pseuds/voidfoxstarlight
Summary: Jon's cousin Carlos invites him to his wedding.
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Series: Cousins [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672039
Comments: 27
Kudos: 668





	musings on family and humanity

Jon’s phone was ringing. Jon frowned at it blearily, lifting his head from Martin’s chest.

“Are you expecting Basira to call you today?” Martin asked.

“No.” Jon picked it up. “It looks like an American number.”

“Who would be calling you from America?”

The only people Jon could conceive of were Trevor Herbert, Julia Montauk, and Max Mustermann, but those were all so unlikely that he didn’t waste time considering them. Besides, Julia and Trevor were still in Britain, as far as he knew.

He answered the call. “Hello?”

“Jon?”

Jon squinted. He should have been more concerned that the caller knew his name, but he recognized the voice from… well, _somewhere_. “Who is this?”

“Carlos, your cousin. I moved to the States a few years ago?”

“Oh!” Jon mouthed the words _my cousin_ to Martin, whose mouth formed a little _O_ of surprise. “Of course, sorry. I didn’t… we haven’t spoken for a while.”

Carlos laughed. “It’s fine. Voices are hard to remember, sometimes. Anyway, I’m calling to ask if you want to come to my wedding.”

Jon’s eyebrows rose. “Your wedding?”

“Yes, it’s next Saturday. I’m sorry it’s such short notice, but, well, you know.”

Jon did not know. “Ah, could you give me a day to think about it?”

“Of course! Take all the time you need.” He paused. “But try to let me know before the day of.”

“Right. I’ll let you know. It’s… it’s good to hear from you, Carlos.”

He could hear the smile in Carlos’s voice. “You too, Jon. Bye.”

The call ended and Jon looked up at Martin. “He invited me to his wedding.”

Martin’s eyes widened. “When is it?”

“Next Saturday, apparently.” Jon’s head flopped back down on Martin’s chest. “Do you think I should go?”

“Do you _want_ to go?”

Jon hummed pensively. He hadn’t spoken to Carlos in years—he hadn’t even realized the man still had his phone number. They had no real connection. But then… it would be so nice to talk to someone who wasn’t involved with the supernatural. And he _was_ some of the only blood family he had still alive.

“I think I do,” he said, a bit surprised.

Martin kissed the top of his hair. “I’ll start looking for flights to America. Which state does he live in?”

* * *

The following Thursday, Carlos picked them up from McCarran International. Jon spotted him before he spotted them. He had half-expected Carlos to be holding a sign with their names on it, but all he had with him was an old messenger bag.

When he noticed them, he beamed and rushed forward with open arms. He pulled Jon into a hug that, while unexpected (the Carlos he remembered had never been overly fond of touch), was not unpleasant.

“It’s so good to see you!” He pulled away and looked up at Martin. “And you must be Martin!”

To both Jon and Martin’s surprise, he hugged Martin, too. He was even shorter than Jon, but evidently had no qualms about pulling Martin down to his level. Martin clumsily hugged back with the hand that wasn’t holding on to luggage.

Carlos helped them secure their suitcases in the trunk then bundled them into his car.

“It’s a bit of a drive from here to Night Vale,” he said apologetically, “but I figured it would be better if I had some time to, uh, prepare you.”

“... for what?”

“Well, Night Vale isn’t exactly a normal place. In fact, I think it’s the antithesis of normal. Paranormal, you could say.”

Next to Jon, Martin stiffened in his seat. Jon leaned forward and met Carlos’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Paranormal?”

“It’s definitely supernatural.”

It was like curtains had been pulled away from Jon’s eyes. He could see the Spiral wafting around the edges of Carlos’s figure and the presence of the Eye that filled his mind. Jon clutched Martin’s hand and spoke without thinking. “ _Why did you ask us to come here_?”

“My siblings are the only family I have left besides you and when we were younger we got along really well, and I was afraid if I didn’t take this chance I would lose you too. Cecil doesn’t have much family left either and I was hoping that we’d be able to take this opportunity to make our families each other’s families.” Carlos’s mouth fell open in surprise.

Jon’s nerves eased but he didn’t let up on the compulsion. “ _Did you mean us any harm by inviting us_?”

“No. Oh, you _have_ to tell me how you did that!” Carlos’s voice was high pitched with excitement. “Usually I’m immune to supernatural powers! I need to take some notes on this. There should be a pen and pad of paper in one of the seat pockets; if I dictate can one of you write?”

“In a moment. Can you describe exactly how supernatural this ‘Night Vale’ is?”

“Well, first things first: my fiance is definitely not human.”

* * *

“You know, I always thought you went grey early because of stress, but now I’m thinking it’s just a family thing,” said Martin as they settled down for bed that night.

Like Jon, Carlos’s dark hair was greying around the temples. Jon snorted. “ _That’s_ what you got from today?”

“It’s a lot easier to process than the fact that your cousin’s marrying an avatar of the Eye who doesn’t even know he’s an avatar and thinks all cats have poisonous spines.”

“Mm.” He picked at the edge of the blanket. “Carlos doesn’t seem to mind that Cecil’s not… human.”

“Carlos doesn’t… he doesn’t seem entirely human, either,” Martin said carefully.

Jon knew he was watching him, waiting for an answer. He raised his head to meet Martin’s gaze. “Do you think so?”

He nodded.

Jon dropped his gaze.

“Would it be so awful if it turned out he wasn’t?”

Jon’s head snapped back up. “No.”

Martin looked startled at his conviction.

Jon was embarrassed all of a sudden. “No,” he repeated, softer but no less firm.

Martin nodded, smiled, and dropped a kiss on Jon’s cheek. “Good night, love.”

“Good night, darling,” Jon whispered.

Martin extinguished the lamp on the bedside table. Tomorrow, they would begin helping with last-minute wedding preparations, and meet the best man and maid of honour, and make a genuine effort to connect. But for now, they held each other in the dark—two not-humans, keeping the nightmares at bay.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Edit 3/16/2020:** carlos and cecil introduce jon and martin to cecil’s family at the wedding and janice excitedly points out that she and martin are wearing the same colour nail polish


End file.
